THE spate of serious crimes, including murders, that have been meted out to our womenfolk have prompted the call for the reintroduction of the death penalty. There is sound reasoning in this call because these crimes, which in recent days have become so gruesome, makes you shudder to read the news. Seems like the slaying of women is the fashionable thing to do in the Caribbean; make no mistake there have been similar horror stories in other jurisdictions right here in CARICOM. So the slaughter of our women continues with no end in sight and this is the reason for society’s urgent call for a hangman.
It is the strongly held view by most of us that hanging the guilty party will curb this horrendous practice or at least reduce the incidence of the crime. Hanging will put a halt to this murderous assault on our women because men who harbour the thought of killing a woman will think a hundred times before carrying out the evil act and I guarantee anyone by the time he reaches the ninety-ninth time he would have changed his mind because he knows what awaits him at the end of his case. A hangman’s noose dangling over one’s head is certainly a deterrent which would cause him to change his mind and this is exactly what we want. No one would like this to happen no matter how “right” that man thinks. But with a noose there just waiting to pop his neck will sober him up and force him to choose another method of conflict resolution. Therefore popping a few necks will do the trick to stop the violence.
While I would like an implementation of the foregoing I must say I have over the years backtracked on the idea of hanging for the simple reason that our country would become a killing field for the poor. This is my argument and you see it plays out in Guyana day after day. If you are rich and influential criminal acts are seen in a whole different light, which means that the guilty is exonerated and not punished at all. And this is my problem, justice as it should be is not fair and balanced and somewhere in that confusion many a guilty party walk free. This indeed paints a sad and frustrating picture when you witness this upsurge in gruesome murders especially against our women.
So I rest my case in the proper sentencing, very long jail time with consecutive not concurrent years in prison. This is something I have not heard in a long time, virtually absent from our courts where sentencing is concerned. I would be very blunt with you my readers. These guys need to die in prison never to return to normal life again. When such consequences are laid out before criminals and criminally inclined people we will see a halt if not stop to serious crimes.